On Thu, 8 Sep 2005, Dave Gutteridge wrote:
> Actually, this leads me to a question I wanted to ask anyway. I've been
> advised here before that I should always try to install things through Yum or
> RPMs. I've been told that installing from tar files and building from source
> is a bad idea.
I felt more comfortable if you also mentioned why it is a bad idea.
If you install files from a tarball or build from source on a system, you
have no log of what files have been placed where. With RPM you can at all
time query rpmdb to see if a file has been changed, from what package it
is, who needs that package, etc...
If you build or install RPM packages, the install process _relies_ on this
information and requires it to be correct. But if you installed something
from a tarball (and eg. replaced a file that came from an RPM) you
introduce an inconsistency which is untraceable.
A good example which appears from time to time is when you used CPAN to
install perl modules, and then install an RPM package that requires these
modules. RPM doesn't know about the CPAN installed packages and complains
the required perl modules are not installed (via RPM) even though you
installed them by hand.
Another big reason NOT to install stuff by hand is that you loose a big
advantage in the fact that you system will not be similar to someone
else's system. If you eg. start replacing libraries and suddenly something
doesn't work, most people will not help you since they can not repoduce
the problem. Your system is uniquely crippled :)
The same is true when you use packages that were not built or designed for
you distribution/release. Or when you --force or --nodeps a package.
> But what does one do when there is software that is readily available for
> other Linux distros, and is theoretically buildable for CentOS, but not
> available from the standard Yum repositories like Dag and CentOS's own? Is one
> supposed to contact the repository owner and request the software be included?
Package it yourself or find someone to package it for you. Sometimes
people will give you a much better alternative that is already packaged.
You can always contribute a self-made package to RPMforge or request
something to be packaged at: suggest at lists.rpmforge.net
Kind regards,
-- dag wieers, dag at wieers.com, http://dag.wieers.com/ --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]